'\" t
.\" Copyright (c) 2008 Linux Foundation, written by Michael Kerrisk
.\"     <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH pthread_attr_setguardsize 3 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages 6.9.1"
.SH NAME
pthread_attr_setguardsize, pthread_attr_getguardsize \- set/get guard size
attribute in thread attributes object
.SH LIBRARY
POSIX threads library
.RI ( libpthread ", " \-lpthread )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <pthread.h>
.P
.BI "int pthread_attr_setguardsize(pthread_attr_t *" attr \
", size_t " guardsize );
.BI "int pthread_attr_getguardsize(const pthread_attr_t *restrict " attr ,
.BI "                              size_t *restrict " guardsize );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR pthread_attr_setguardsize ()
function sets the guard size attribute of the
thread attributes object referred to by
.I attr
to the value specified in
.IR guardsize .
.P
If
.I guardsize
is greater than 0,
then for each new thread created using
.I attr
the system allocates an additional region of at least
.I guardsize
bytes at the end of the thread's stack to act as the guard area
for the stack (but see BUGS).
.P
If
.I guardsize
is 0, then new threads created with
.I attr
will not have a guard area.
.P
The default guard size is the same as the system page size.
.P
If the stack address attribute has been set in
.I attr
(using
.BR pthread_attr_setstack (3)
or
.BR pthread_attr_setstackaddr (3)),
meaning that the caller is allocating the thread's stack,
then the guard size attribute is ignored
(i.e., no guard area is created by the system):
it is the application's responsibility to handle stack overflow
(perhaps by using
.BR mprotect (2)
to manually define a guard area at the end of the stack
that it has allocated).
.P
The
.BR pthread_attr_getguardsize ()
function returns the guard size attribute of the
thread attributes object referred to by
.I attr
in the buffer pointed to by
.IR guardsize .
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success, these functions return 0;
on error, they return a nonzero error number.
.SH ERRORS
POSIX.1 documents an
.B EINVAL
error if
.I attr
or
.I guardsize
is invalid.
On Linux these functions always succeed
(but portable and future-proof applications should nevertheless
handle a possible error return).
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR pthread_attr_setguardsize (),
.BR pthread_attr_getguardsize ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2008.
.SH HISTORY
glibc 2.1.
POSIX.1-2001.
.SH NOTES
A guard area consists of virtual memory pages that are protected
to prevent read and write access.
If a thread overflows its stack into the guard area,
then, on most hard architectures, it receives a
.B SIGSEGV
signal, thus notifying it of the overflow.
Guard areas start on page boundaries,
and the guard size is internally rounded up to
the system page size when creating a thread.
(Nevertheless,
.BR pthread_attr_getguardsize ()
returns the guard size that was set by
.BR pthread_attr_setguardsize ().)
.P
Setting a guard size of 0 may be useful to save memory
in an application that creates many threads
and knows that stack overflow can never occur.
.P
Choosing a guard size larger than the default size
may be necessary for detecting stack overflows
if a thread allocates large data structures on the stack.
.SH BUGS
As at glibc 2.8, the NPTL threading implementation includes
the guard area within the stack size allocation,
rather than allocating extra space at the end of the stack,
as POSIX.1 requires.
(This can result in an
.B EINVAL
error from
.BR pthread_create (3)
if the guard size value is too large,
leaving no space for the actual stack.)
.P
The obsolete LinuxThreads implementation did the right thing,
allocating extra space at the end of the stack for the guard area.
.\" glibc includes the guardsize within the allocated stack size,
.\" which looks pretty clearly to be in violation of POSIX.
.\"
.\" Filed bug, 22 Oct 2008:
.\" https://www.sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6973
.\"
.\" Older reports:
.\" https//bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=435337
.\" Reportedly, LinuxThreads did the right thing, allocating
.\" extra space at the end of the stack:
.\" http://sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2008-05/msg00086.html
.SH EXAMPLES
See
.BR pthread_getattr_np (3).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mmap (2),
.BR mprotect (2),
.BR pthread_attr_init (3),
.BR pthread_attr_setstack (3),
.BR pthread_attr_setstacksize (3),
.BR pthread_create (3),
.BR pthreads (7)
